The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

What About The Cats?

by Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher/Owner

20 June 2007

When do we become our parents? It is funny when we catch ourselves doing something that are parents did, that we might have thought was a little bit "uncool".

My friends and I were discussing how much we enjoy looking out the window and watching the birds at the feeder, and how we thought it was strange when our parents did this.

Surely, they had something more interesting to do.

Now, we may go for a drive to see how the corn crop looks, and we watch the weather report. As a kid, you are too busy to care, and if it rained, so what, you played in it, just the same.

I loved my kittens, too. They were my best friends. I never noticed if they got into anyone's yard. I'm sure "Snookems" did. He would disappear for awhile, and then he was soon home. Now, I'm a little leary of stray cats bothering my bird bath, and digging in my garden.

Should we have laws to control them?

One opinion is that of the late U.S. Senator Adlai Stevenson (D-IL) (1900-1965). He vetoed a bill that would have restricted the freedom of cats saying:

"the problem of the cat vs. the bird is as old as time. If we attempt to resolve it by legislation, who knows but what we may be called upon to take sides as well in the age-old problems of dog vs. cat, bird vs. bird, or even bird vs. worm. In my opinion, the State of Illinois and its local governing bodies already have enough to do without trying to control feline delinquency."